Abstract
Objective
Patients suffering from severe injury or illness can benefit from the care and transport
of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS). This may be due to the speed of transport,
level of care, expertise of flight crews, and access to specialized equipment and
tools. One such tool is point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). POCUS-based lung and cardiac
evaluations can positively influence the assessment and care provided to critically
ill HEMS patients, but how these procedures can best be learned by nonphysician flight
crewmembers has not been fully explored.
Methods
In this prospective, interventional study, 26 flight crewmembers were evaluated before
and after a succinct, guided educational intervention focused on the use of free open-access
medical education material intended to help them acquire the knowledge needed to accurately
identify and interpret POCUS assessments.
Results
After completing the educational intervention, participants had a statistically significant
improvement in their postintervention scores.
Conclusion
This study supports the use of free open-access medical education material in improving
the knowledge needed for nonphysician flight crewmembers to interpret basic lung and
cardiac ultrasound images. Integrating this information into educational programs
may contribute to increased comfort and proficiency and serve to accelerate the adoption
of this tool in the air medical environment.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Air Medical JournalAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Helicopter EMS: research endpoints and potential benefits.Emerg Med Int. 2012; 2012: 1-14
- The impact of a rotorcraft aeromedical emergency care service on trauma mortality.JAMA. 1983; 249: 3047-3051
- Prehospital ultrasound in trauma: a review of current and potential future clinical applications.J Emerg Trauma Shock. 2018; 11: 4
- In-flight ultrasound identification of pneumothorax.Emerg Radiol. 2015; 23: 3-7
- Use of ultrasound by emergency medical services: a review.Int J Emerg Med. 2008; 1: 253-259
- Prospective evaluation of prehospital trauma ultrasound during aeromedical transport.J Emerg Med. 2014; 47: 638-645
- Evaluation of a training curriculum for prehospital trauma ultrasound.J Emerg Med. 2013; 45: 856-864
- Aeromedical ultrasound: the evaluation of point-of-care ultrasound during helicopter transport.Air Med J. 2017; 36: 110-115
- A blended prehospital ultrasound curriculum for critical care paramedics.Air Med J. 2019; 38: 426-430
- Hydropneumothorax.Life in the Fast Lane. 2018;
- Lung ultrasound: pneumothorax.Life in the Fast Lane. 2018;
- Use of ultrasound to diagnose pneumothorax after video assisted thoracic surgery: do we need to acquire a new skill?.Saudi J Anaesth. 2014; 8: 550-553
- Chest ribcage free stock photo - public domain pictures.2007
Clinical Images & Videos. SonoSite. 2020.
- Practical approach to lung ultrasound.BJA Educ. 2016; 16: 39-45
- Cardiac Function 5 Min Vid. 5-minute sono.2015
- A modified lung and cardiac ultrasound protocol saves time and rules in the diagnosis of acute heart failure.J Emerg Med. 2017; 52: 839-845
- Lung ultrasound integrated with clinical assessment for the diagnosis of acute decompensated heart failure in the emergency department: a randomized controlled trial.Eur J Heart Fail. 2019; 21: 754-766
- Point-of-care ultrasound leads to diagnostic shifts in patients with undifferentiated hypotension.Am J Emerg Med. 2017; 35: 1984.e3-1984.e7
- Chest ultrasonography versus supine chest radiography for diagnosis of pneumothorax in trauma patients in the emergency department.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020; 7CD013031
- Pneumothorax following thoracentesis.Arch Intern Med. 2010; 170: 332
- Reliability of ultrasonography in confirming endotracheal tube placement in an emergency setting.Indian J Crit Care Med. 2017; 21: 257-261
- Transtracheal ultrasound for verification of endotracheal tube placement: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Can J Anaesth. 2014; 62: 413-423
- Ultrasound-guided brachial and basilic vein cannulation in emergency department patients with difficult intravenous access.Ann Emerg Med. 1999; 34: 711-714
- Ultrasound by emergency physicians to detect abdominal aortic aneurysms: a UK case series.Emerg Med J. 2004; 21: 257-259
- Ultrasound case of the month. Taming the SRU.2019
- Ultrasound case of the month: a silent killer.Brown Emergency Medicine. 2019;
- EFAST for pneumothorax: real-life application in an urban level 1 center by trauma team members.Am Surg. 2018; 84: 220-224
Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 19, 2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Air Medical Journal Associates. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
